Sunday, 2 October 2016

Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence is remembered

Gandhi Jayanthi is celebrated on the 2nd of October every year across India. It marks the birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Father of the Nation and an Apostle of Non-Violence. General
Assembly announced on 15 June 2007 that it adopted a resolution which
declared that 2 October will be celebrated as the International Day of
Non-Violence.

Gandhiji
assumed leadership of the Indian National Congress (INC) only in 1921,
six years after his return to India from South Africa where he was an
expatriate lawyer. There he successfully employed non-violent civil
disobedience campaigns to fight for the civil rights of Indian settlers.

Gandhi,
with cooperation from numerous prominent Indian leaders, transcending
caste, religion, etc took on the mighty British to free India. They gave
him whole-heated support and this helped him lead nationwide
campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building
religious and ethnic amity, ending un-touchability, and, above all, for
achieving Swaraj or self-rule. His leadership during the Dandi Salt
March in 1930 covering a distance of 400km challenging the
British-imposed tax on salt and later his clarion call in 1942 for the
British to quit India drew the attention of the entire world and his
frequent non-violent civil disobedience campaigns and Satyagrahas to free
India from the British yoke, showed the British Crown and their cronies
in India in bad light. In August 1947, at last India got her freedom,
but the Indian Empire was partitioned to the dismay of Gandhi. A new theocratic nation called Pakistan was carved out India - purely on the basis of religion. On January 30, 1948 Gandhi was assassinated by one Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist. In a jiffy, he prayed to him and then pumped three bullets into his bare chest at point - blank, range. Seconds later, Gandhiji fell down dead uttering "HEY RAM" (oh God).

Gandhi with Azad and Kripalani at the historic
"Quit India" meeting of the All India Congress Committee, August
1942. www.gandhiashramsevagram.org

The Aga Khan Palace near Poona, where Gandhi was interned from August 1942 to May 1944. www.gandhiashramsevagram.org

Presented
below are some rare images of Gandhiji taken from some sources. The
credit is given below each image. Some of the images show the remarkable
imagination of the artists and their subtle interpretation.

Indian sculptor used bronze as a medium. The sculpture is in front of the President’s House in the capital. It is a beautiful sculpture in black of 11 figures representing the Dandi (Gujarat) March Gandhi undertook in opposition to the Salt Tax levied by the colonial government.blog.artsome.com

Israeli artist Amit Shimoni takes a fresh take on world leaders. He re-imagines them as hipsters. His series Hipstory, combines modern-day hipster culture with history. In this portrait, Gandhi wears a tye-die shirt with the sixties style shades, which reflects his peaceful stance and message of love.. blog.artsome.co

This Philip Jackson statue of Mahatma Gandhi is in the Parliament Square in London. Standing 9 feet tall, cast in bronze, this sculpture is a fitting tribute to the friendship that has emerged between the two nations United Kingdom and India in the recent years and Gandhi being a symbol of that. blog.artsome.co

This amazing mural is by a German artist Hendrik Beikirch: it is on the Delhi Police Headquarters and is a treat for all art lovers in the city. This largest-ever black and white mural of Gandhi was painted as part of the street art and graffiti festival in the capital in 2014.www.alamy.com

Gandhiji supporting the British in South Africa (Gandhi, middle row 5th
from left with stretcher bearers of the Indian Ambulance Corps -
1899-1900). 2ndlook.wordpress.com/tag/gandhi/

Mohandas Gandhi as lawyer in South Africa, wearing Hindu cap and
European clothes, with HSL Polak (clerk) and...http://www.alamy.com

Gandhi landed at Durban in May 1893 as a Barrister. His employer was one Dada Abdulla, one of the wealthiest Indian merchants in Natal. He took him to the Durban court in connection with a case. When Gandhi was asked to take off his turban by the European magistrate, he refused to budge. He left the court - room and wrote a letter of protest in the local press in which he was mentioned "as an unwelcome visitor". He had another dose of racial intimidation in the apartheid South African nation. On his journey from Durban to Pretoria at Maritzburg station late in the evening, he was ordered to leave the first class compartment and shift to the van compartment. He refused, but was unceremoniously turned out of the carriage. It was a bitterly cold night and he had spent the time in the unlit waiting - room. Till then he had no idea about the humiliating conditions under which Indians lived in South Africa. He took a resolution to fight out the injustice directed against non whites in the name of skin color and racial supremacy. South Africa became his experimental field to fight racial disparity, etc by using non-violent civil dis obedience struggles against the apartheid administration.

www.alamy.com

Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement, on the S.S. Rajputna (August 29, 1931) en route to the Round Table conference in London to discuss India's freedom. It was a failure because of Britain's financial crisis and the change of new Conservative government. Winston Churchill, famous India baiter called Gandhiji 'seditious half-naked fakir.

http://www.alamy.com

Mahatma Gandhi arrived in London, England in 1931 with his disciple, Madeleine Slade, and his two goats. Madeleine Slade aka Mirabehn, 1892 – 1982 was a British woman who left her home in Britain to live and work with Gandhi. Gandhi never stayed in posh hotel. He stayed in an ordinary place. On invitation, he stayed in Kingsley Hall in the East end, London in order to be "among the same sort of people to whom I have given my life" Every morning he got up at 4 am the morning prayer. He had his morning walk in the main streets of the East End.There he met with British labor community, famous satirist Bernard Shaw and also comedian Charlie Chaplin.

Gandhiji was fond of peanuts and drinks prepared from goat's milk. Perhaps, a cup of tea or coffee made from goat's milk would give him relaxation and the needed energy to engage in long parley with the British, who were hard nuts to crack.

http://www.alamy.com Gandhi was quite popular among the poor, labor class. The British aristocracy tagged them as untouchables of England. The rich and the royal will never entertain marriage proposal between them and the poor factory people.

Gandhi was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, he led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

The pleasant surprise was the courtesy and affection Gandhi received from the cotton operatives of Lancashire, which had been very much affected by total the boycott of British goods in India. Gandhiji was sympathetic to their tale of woe of those who were jobless. Fortunately, those poor workers understood Gandhi and his mission and never failed to see the reason for the boycott. Gandhi said: "You have three million unemployed, but we have 200 million unemployed for half the year. Your average unemployment dole is seventy shillings. Our average income is 7s. 6d. a month

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I am KN.Jayaraman, Retd Geologist, author of this blog. I have a strong passion for Ancient Indian Culture, art, architecture, etc...
I started this blog with a view to covering the above areas and also odd things related to India.
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